Police arrested a woman who had burnt her toast in her new local authority house.
And yesterday she was jailed for four months after a Sheriff was told Fiona Hardie, 49, shouted and swore at officers and firemen when they managed to get into her house after being refused entry to the property on January 9.
She had been complaining that she had everything under control although her smoke alarm was still sounding, her solicitor, Alison Foggo told Inverness Sheriff Court.
But as she was being put into a police vehicle to be taken to the cells, Hardie spat at one officer, hitting him on the sleeve.
Hardie, of Oldtown Road, pleaded guilty to assaulting the police constable. She also admitted previous convictions. Her sentence was backdated by Sheriff Margaret Neilson to the date she was first remanded on January 10.
Fiscal depute Ross Carvel said: “Officers and the Fire Brigade attended at her house because there were concerns about the smell of smoke coming from it.
“They were refused entry but they managed to get in. She was shouting and swearing and after being arrested, she spat at one of them as she was being placed in the police vehicle.”
Ms Foggo told the court: “She was angry and upset that she was being arrested for burning her toast after police got in.”
Sheriff Neilson commented: “They were only trying to assist her.”
Ms Foggo replied: “Although the smoke alarm was going off, she had everything under control.”
The lawyer asked the Sheriff not to jail her client “in case she loses her home as she has just been awarded the local authority tenancy. The longer she spends in jail, the more the likelihood.
“She accepts she was out of order and that she should not have behaved in this way.”
However Sheriff Neilson told Hardie: “In view of your record only a custodial sentence is appropriate.”
